Spanish teaching resources to use this winter

Timbo’s and friends adventure (comic/short story + ropa de invierno)

Teach weather, parts of the body, and winter clothing with Timbo.  There are worksheets, videos, songs and games for kids available here.  

Christmas tree craft tutorial / Árbol de Navidad

Create a Christmas tree in class and have the students write their wishes for the next year inside.  Download the tree template here and follow along with the video tutorial!  

Describing a picture

This is a great activity to use after winter break to let students show what they did during the time off and to put them in the spotlight.  Have your students bring in one picture of a winter activity they did over break.  Start by going through the vocabulary you see in the picture (winter clothing, activities, etc) before describing the picture.  For lower level classes the teacher can collect the pictures beforehand, create a list of related vocabulary to practice and then show the pictures asking simple yes/no questions about the image.  For example, ¿Hay nieve?  ¿Lleva una bufanda?  For higher level classes have students prepare the image by teaching the class the different words for what they can see in the picture and asking five questions about the image.

Winter conversation cards

 Create conversation cards to use in class specifically designed to focus on winter activities.  For example, ¿En el invierno te gusta comer dulces?  ¿En el invierno lees muchos libros?  Make it prep free by having students create a list questions in class before getting up and mingling.  Have them note the answers to the questions.  Another vatiation would be to have a conversation in partners.  We like this conversation card resource because it's visual and gives a full example to help those who need it.   

Teach a topic related to culture

1.  Teaching Dia de los reyes magos in beginning Spanish.  In this lesson plan by Sol Azúcar your students will learn about los reyes magos and compare and contrast the holiday to the holidays they celebrate.  You can teach the class in the target language or a mix of Spanglish, making sure to highlight key words/phrases in Spanish.  

2.  Compare and contrast Christmas traditions with younger learners with this lesson plan from El Mundo de Pepita.  She also has a fantastic infograph comparing Christmas trees from around the world which can be used with beginning level classes or younger Spanish learners! 

Find someone who…

The perfect activity for the week after winter break!  You’ll have to prep this activity beforehand, especially if you want to use it to review the verb tenses and vocabulary you’ve used in class.  The good thing about it is that once you’ve created it, you can monitor while your students get up and mingle, and afterward you can collect the class data by asking students to report what they’ve learned to the class.  For other ideas on how to ease back in after the holidays, check out this blog post 

Best of luck with the final stretch before the holiday season!  As always, we'd love to hear what your'e doing in your Spanish classes for kids.  You can leave a comment below or on our Facebook page.